Swimming Lessons - [Open]

[optimistickey]

Characters: Sora, Namine, Xion, Roxas, and anyone else who wants to join in!
Content: Sora decides to give some swimming lessons to whoever may need them
Location: The pool at the recreation deck
Time of Day: Midday
Warnings: None so far


Sora couldn’t even remember the last time he’d used the recreation deck’s pool for a swim...they’d been busy with a lot of things lately, and sometimes the pool had been off-limits. It felt pretty good to just get on his trunks and jump back into the water, even if this time it wouldn’t be for relaxing so much as education.

He tread water in the shallow end of the large pool, waiting for Xion, Namine and Roxas to join him there so that they could get started. He figured that they wouldn’t much go into the deep end on the first lesson, but luckily there was plenty of space on both ends of the pool. It’d be interesting trying to teach this to people his age, considering his learned how to swim when he was very young...practically at the same time he learned to walk. As such, a lot of it was just instinct for him. But his friends couldn’t rely on that, so he’d have to try a different approach.

Comments

[halfdarkened]

Namine's appearance garnered a smile from Riku. While he wasn't teaching, this still meant he got to see her.

Chances are it was very good that Namine had both the decency and common sense to wear something reasonable. Otherwise the blood from a certain someone's sinuses might've attracted any space-dwelling sharks for lightyears around. As it was, however, her outfit barely phased Riku, other than a passing thought that she looked cute. Both boys were used to seeing Kairi in a bathing suit, and this was about on par with what she wore.

"Hey Namine. They're not far ahead, don't worry." He slowly flipped backwards in the water, showing how at ease he was in it in hopes Namine would take comfort in it. Placid water was nothing to be afraid of. It was like a playground.

[optimistickey]

Sora waved to Namine as she finally showed up. Since they were still getting started, it wasn’t like she missed too much. And of course, Riku looked pretty pleased that she showed up, too. “Hi, Namine! Come on in!”

Roxas stepped in and gave floating a try...although he seemed to be trying it on his stomach instead of his back. Sora righted himself in the water, and scratched at the back of his head. “That’s a good way to get a really relaxing float, although then you still gotta hold your breath some.” If you didn’t, it really would be a ‘dead-man’s float.’ “Try it on your back, and spread your arms and legs out!” He did so again to demonstrate, also giving Xion and Namine more time to try.

Probably going to be co-posting for them, just to keep things moving. ^^;;;

[colorbymemory]

Namine wasn't really scared of water, even in the amount there was in the pool. Mostly because so far, she had no real negative associations with it. She lacked Kairi's familiarity with it, though, so she thought it best to be cautious. Not that the reassurance from both Riku and Sora wasn't appreciated. "Thank you. I'll be in in a minute."

After setting down her towel on one of the chairs, she went to the stairs that formed the entrance to the shallow end. Having seen Xion gasp in surprise at how cold the water was when she'd slipped in from the side, getting used to it little by little seemed like a good idea. The only drawback was the time it would take. Xion was already mostly used to the water, trying to follow Sora's example and float.

Eventually she made it to where everyone was. Fortunately, the water wasn't so deep as to be a problem.

[thirteenth_brat]

Roxas had started out getting down in the water on his belly, but he had turned onto his back, following Sora's example. Namine's approach caught his attention, though and he lost whatever zone he was in that it was working out. Probably, it was trying to look and see who all was around that burst his bubble, so to speak. Still, he had a feeling he had it. Mostly.

As much as he could see how being able to swim was useful and floating was kind of relaxing, he wasn't so sure he liked being wet outside of taking a shower or bath. Maybe it was the lack of the memories from before and his experiences up to now lacking anything to do with swimming, but he was really only interesting learning now because of the usefulness... It might also have had something to do with nearly drowning on a mission and Axel being incredulous that he couldn't swim, though why Axel thought he should have been able to swim went unexplained at the time.

"I think I got water in my ear," he grumbled. Yeah, practicality was really the only reason he had for learning (or relearning as the case seemed to be) how to swim.

(Sorry for adding in the water-in ear trick, otherwise his post was gonna be tiny)

[halfdarkened]

As Namine stepped into the pool, Riku half-walked half-swam over towards the bottom of the steps. He didn't say anything, but simply watched her. That being said, he kept an eye on the others, too, in case anything were to happen. Sora was extremely capable, but an extra set of eyes never hurt.

"Water in your ears happens. You'll get used to it." Well mostly. To this day Riku wasn't a fan, but he could deal with it and he knew how to get it out. He planted his feet on the pool bottom and stood. "Try this." He turned an ear so it faced down and tapped his temple with his palm before pulling the earlobe.

[optimistickey]

"If you shake your head out, it'll help get some of the water out!" Sora said. That kind of thing was annoying, but it couldn't be helped when you were in the water. Thinking about it now, he never remembered being annoyed by that water-in-the-ear feeling in Altantica...maybe that was just part of having a merform.

"Once you've got the hang of floating, we can start going over kicking! The easiest way to start to do that is just to keep yourself anchored to the wall and kick." He remembered some basics of learning to swim very young, and it seemed you always started out on the wall before moving straight into the water.

[skysmirror]

Both suggestions for getting water out of the ears were welcome. After a few tries, Xion had found that the best way of even attempting to float meant leaning her head so far back in the water that she ended up with some splashing into her ears. No word to describe the feeling exactly came to mind, but it made her want to stand up and shake the water out. Hence why she was on about her fifth try.

She leaned back to try once more, gritting her teeth and the feeling and forcing herself not to stand again. After a few moments, the worst of the annoyance faded, and she felt herself relax. She couldn't hear, though--at least, any sound was so distorted by the water in her ears that she might as well have been deaf. That made her tense again, and she stood to keep from sinking.

Shaking her head, she caught Sora's remark about learning to kick. That sounded easier than floating. "How well do we need to float before we can move on?"

Over near the stairs she saw Namine stop to talk to Riku once she reached where he was.

[thirteenth_brat]

Roxas hadn't found the water in his ear to be too annoying for the lesson, thankfully. Still, the advice on getting it out was welcome. Come to think of it, he had heard or read somewhere that some people used ear plugs to keep water out of their ears when swimming. Maybe that was something to keep in mind for next time.

As much as he was pretty sure he was getting the hang of floating and a little more practice on it wouldn't hurt, he didn't mind the prospect of moving on.

[halfdarkened]

Riku held out his hand to Namine as she stepped in. "You got a good teacher. He'll take care of you." After an encouraging nod, he added, "And if anything goes wrong, I'll be here, okay?"

That was his job today. He was Sora's backup, in case something did. Honestly, though, Riku expected he'd have an easy job today.

[optimistickey]

Sora certainly hoped that Riku would have an easy job...if that went wrong, it'd mean he was really doing something wrong. And with how Riku wanted to help Namine into the water here, it was likely he'd rather focus more of his attention on her, anyway.

It seemed like Xion was having a little trouble with her ears and floating, though. "You don't have to get it down perfect or anything. But it's still important to know, so that it makes the rest of swimming easier on you." He carefully paddled over to the pool's edge, and held onto it with both hands.

"Try and hang onto the edge like this, so you can just focus on using your legs!"

[colorbymemory]

Namine was sure Sora was a good teacher when it came to swimming; he'd grown up knowing how to, after all. Though it seemed that if they weren't careful, Riku might end up mostly teaching her. Taking the offered hand, she smiled. "I know. Thank you."

She kept hold of the hand as she began to make her way towards the others. It looked like Xion was following Sora over to the wall, so she needed to hurry to catch up. Her grip was fairly loose, though, giving Riku a choice as to whether or not to keep hold of her hand and follow, or keep an eye on things from a distance.

[thirteenth_brat]

Roxas followed Sora's lead. It felt like he might be remembering something. Or maybe it was more that he was recalling bits of Sora's memories that he'd seen. He wasn't sure but it was starting to feel right, in a way. He was pretty sure sure he wasn't the type to go swimming for leisure, but the lesson was still appreciated.

He supposed that, in some sort of emergency where he couldn't count on someone else bailing him out, he might have 'remembered' how to swim. But he hadn't been alone the one time that he'd ended up taking a dunk and Axel's incredulous response to his inability to swim (after fishing him out and making sure he would be okay) had been one of the clues that the man knew more than he was letting on.

Yes, he's playing life guard. XD

[halfdarkened]

Riku followed along behind, staying in tow most of the way. Based on the little quirk to his smile, he seemed to like that. It would be good practice for the future if her curiosity should peak over something. Should she ever want to explore, he imagined, she could lead him where ever she desired, and he'd be right there for her.

But that would be for another time. As soon as they got near the others, Riku gave her hand a brief squeeze before letting his fingers slip through hers. Should she look back, he'd give her a smile and motion with his chin for her to continue. She'd be fine.

Still, he had a job to do. Riku swam over to the low dive before hauling himself out of the water. He climbed out of the pool to go sit and watch from the low dive. At worst, he could easily slip into the water from there should something happen. At best, he got a good view to watch.

[optimistickey]

He noted Riku climb out of the pool to watch from a somewhat higher position, and turned around to the three others still in the pool. He was still hanging on to the edge.

"Try hanging on and kicking for a little while, like this!" He demonstrated for a bit, trying to keep his body level to the water's surface so that they could see the benefit of floating properly, too.

After a bit of that demonstration, he scanned around the pool edges for kickboards...that was usually the next step after getting the hang of kicking against the wall.

[skysmirror]

Xion had noticed that sometimes, shared experience was needed to jump start memories she'd received from Sora. Worlds he'd visited had always seemed familiar. So maybe she and Roxas needed this lesson to help them "remember" how to swim, as it were. Whatever the case, she too appreciated the effort Sora was making. Once she felt a little more confident in her ability, she'd have to come back on her own to see how she liked it.

Once Namine had returned Riku's smile, nodded, and finally joined them, they could go on to the next step. After making sure she wouldn't accidentally kick anyone, she tried kicking while holding onto the pool wall. Staying afloat this way was actually a little easier.